Kippur (2000)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Amos Gitai

Writers:

Amos Gitai (writer)
Marie-Jose Sanselme (writer)

Release Date:

13 September 2000 (France)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

Bloody, Vivid... Unvarnished.

Plot:

The film takes place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in which Egypt and Syria launched attacks in Sinai and the Golan Heights...

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Helicopter | Syria | Soldier | Sinai

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Liron Levo	...	Weinraub
Tomer Russo	...	Ruso
Uri Klauzner	...	Klausner (as Uri Ran-Klausner)
Yoram Hattab	...	The Pilot
Guy Amir	...	Gadassi
Juliano Mer	...	The Captain
Ran Kauchinsky	...	Shlomo
Kobi Livne	...	Kobi
Liat Glick	...	Dina (as Liat Glick Levo)
Pini Mittleman	...	Hospital Doctor
Meital Barda
Gidi Gov

Also Known As:

Kippour (France)

Runtime:

Canada:117 min | France:124 min | Argentina:125 min

Country:

Israel | France

Language:

Hebrew

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:12 | France:U | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Argentina:13

Company:

Agav Hafakot

Trivia:

The film is based on director Amos Gitai's own experience of joining a helicopter rescue crew during the war of Kippur, and his helicopter being shot down by a Syrian missile on his 23rd birthday.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Numerous times we see Israeli Merkava tanks on the battlefield (with their distinctive wedge-like turrets) which would not be introduced until the late 1970s.

Probably the best anti-war film ever.

This is not a Hollywood film, and not an action film by any means. Its an art film, just look at the opening love making sequence. Two characters making love sopping in paint on Yom Kippur while everyone else takes part in religious activities. You dont get much more sac-religious than this. So we know this is not a propoganda film.

Despite its boredom and such, when compared to other "anti-war" films like platoon and such, this is king. Why? Because there is nothing glorifying about it or the characters, its boring, there is not a single gunshot in the whole film. Rather we spend 2 hours following a medical rescue team in a chopper hauling dead and wounded bodies into a chopper. No heroic sacrifice, no barely dodging bullets and RPG's, no cool action sequences at all. Israel needs more films like this, to see the futility of fighting wars like this. The use of long shots puts us on the outside looking in on the film, and the use of long takes helps us observe these events in real time. Specifically with the stuck in the mud scene. THe one character ironically says "this earth, this sH^&*^" When the Israeli ideology is so focused on a spiritual connection with the land, the land they feel entitled to.

Its about time that Anti-war films actually institute a feeling of real social change, and not pretend to be anti-war films conveying sacrifice and a "it was worth it" ideal. Real anti-war films do not just show the horror of blood and guts and death, they show the futility of it completely. And they are very difficult for the viewer to accept for the first time.